DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERIES - Digital is the tools and transformation is the people

I have been inviting Pharma leaders to learn from them and provide them with a platform to share their views as part of my Digital Transformation Series for several years now.

I do this because I am genuinely passionate about helping field teams embrace technology to engage with HCPs. I want them to feel good about themselves and achieve incredible results by using tech confidently.

I was delighted to welcome Erasmus Holm, Director of Pharma & Commercial Operations at MSD Netherlands, to the Digital Transformation Series in December 2023.

Erasmus used to watch a lot of TV as a child, but he was only interested in the commercials, so it's no surprise he's working in sales and marketing in the Netherlands as a director of Pharma and Commercial Operations.

Erasmus is a Sales and Marketing Strategist who partners with teams and colleagues to transform and grow business, making sure all along that B2B does not mean Boring 2 Boring!

Erasmus knows what truly drives sales and creates unique customer experiences—and it’s mastering how you change and impact people, balancing the new trends with reality. He spent over a decade working in global tech companies, focusing on what drives sales and creating a unique customer experience. He has a BA in Marketing Communications from Copenhagen Business School as well as several degrees in Commercial Design.

We met at Reuters in Nice as coincidentally, we were both staying in the same hotel so I spoke to him at breakfast. What I didn't know, he had spilled yoghurt on his jacket; and was trying to figure out how he was going to get the stain out before he stood on stage for a panel discussion. He is an amazing speaker; I also saw him speak at NEXT Pharma in Dubrovnik and was so impressed with his grasp of reality and creativity.

Please note: Erasmus is expressing his own views and not of his employer.

How do you define digital transformation?

The digitalisation of the processes you have and the mindset and skillset of different people. Digital is the tools and transformation is the people.

What have you done at MSD to help others with digital transformation?

When it comes to digital transformation you have to be realistic and simple. The desire to change in Pharma is low, so you do incremental changes. Adding digital to your marketing strategy is digitalising the processes, not the core of the company. You have to be realistic and try not to be distracted by the shiny things. You have to fix the basics; it's about having more impactful engagement with our customers. Of course, we were distracted by trying new things. What I've learned is not to sweat it; it's okay if it doesn't work out but look at what you've learned from the experience. Digital transformation is the digitalisation of our industry. It's not a profound change.

When I came into the company, I had digital transformation in my title. I wanted to get rid of it. It is everyone's responsibility to do digital transformation. In 2024, I am sure someone will have AI in their title. That person should get rid of that fast. I think AI is a trend, but it will definitely be an everyday tool, but we have to have everyone on the journey to use it to provide value and not misuse it.

How do you bring the people on that journey?

The mindset of people is so important on the journey. People will normally raise their hands when you ask who wants change, but their hands go down when you ask who wants to change and then who wants to lead the change, and there's almost no hands left. Leaders need to highlight and find the right environment where teams can operate. Find the people who will really explore and keep asking the questions. They need a clear understanding of boundaries; and leaders need to encourage others to explore those spaces. Leaders need to drive their teams towards the boundaries.

How do you create a culture that encourages pushing the boundaries within the limits of compliance?

I'm a firm believer that you can create an environment but you can't force that environment. You need to bring in people with drive, patience and the right mindset. You cannot just facilitate online learning and host internal webinars and think it will be fixed. Be hyper-focused on creating an environment. It's simply about finding the right people, with the right patience. If you silo people too much, at some point you need to merge them together. I don't have a formula for this; it's hiring the right people and giving them the right environment to work, and then the magic starts to happen.

You must have a recipe! What are one or two things you do to empower people?

Sharing experiences and failures. Leaders shouldn't be afraid of being vulnerable, and they should tell their teams that there will be no repercussions for trying and failing. They will learn from the things they did. They will learn from the campaign that failed. We bring in people who really want to try and go to those boundaries.

Can you give an example of a customer-centric campaign at MSD?

It's not mine, but we did an amazing HPV campaign in Norway. Some really creative people wanted to engage with the youth and talk to them about HPV and genital warts. Not an easy subject to talk about! There were really creative ideas and some of these pictures were posted on Instagram and kids started commenting with emojis, and we thought what's happening! So, we did an emoji campaign with different vegetables, and this scaled to other countries. It was really customer-centric, and we tapped into the youth culture. It was a fun way to communicate. I was inspired by that and take zero credit. Fun fact: The aubergine emoji performed best!

I love your posts on social media; you're so authentic! My team picked up on an interview where you said, "Move fast and break things." Do you have examples of this?

It is a tech industry slogan. I did a lot of pilots, and someone said the Pharma industry does more pilots than the airline industry. We do a pilot and most of the time it doesn't scale.

Personally, I have been distracted by new shiny things, like chatbots! But you need to get the fundamentals right and make sure you're having the right engagements.

Interact with our customers and keep on making sure you are consistent with your communication. Then you can move into more shiny things.

Why is it important to openly share our failures?

 I think it's super important to share failures. Support your teams when they fail and succeed; that's most of my job to do that. I try to hire people smarter than me and then support them. We try things and are not afraid to say what worked and what didn't work. It creates safety and an environment where people are happy to work. I try and inject fun and hope the team will like that. When you have that environment and trust, it makes a lot of things easier.

How do you guide/influence senior leadership on how to stay focused on staying on course with the fundamentals versus the newest shiny object?

 It's about being extremely vocal. Consistency is one of the most impactful drivers of marketing in Pharma. We have a tendency to change each year, so I push back when there are too many new things. There's things like AI you have to do more of. It takes a while and I observe that we move slow in Pharma, but I push back if shiny object syndrome rears its head.

You talk about the commercial teams. How have you enabled the field team to own their engagement with HCPs? How do you give them empowerment to do what is right?

 I've been leading field force teams in the last year so it's slightly new for me. Some advice I can take from the Nordics, we often hyper-focus our field force on messaging and do very hard measurements on how many meetings they have. It will probably be like that for many years. Maybe it's not that important how many meetings but that you make the biggest impact on the customers. Give the empowerment to the sales team like the marketing team. Measure impact, not engagements. They know the customers; we need to trust them.

If you could leave a lasting impact on the Pharma industry, what legacy would you aspire to leave?

 I hope I still have a way to go! I don't think I'll have a lasting impact; the best I'll hope to have is to have an impact on the people I worked with. I'd like them to say that I've helped them and that we did something that was meaningful together. That's all I can hope for, but that's good enough for me!

What are your predictions for 2024 and the next five years?

 The two easy ones are personalised medicine and digital health. We will see a lot more of that. I'm already experiencing digital health in the Netherlands. A lot more of that is coming, and there's an opportunity for Pharma to be invested in that.

 The more difficult predictions that I think will be in the news this year will be drug pricing and weight-loss. The weight-loss drugs are already here. If we can eliminate a mass amount of obesity in our Western world, imagine the trends that will come from that. All industries will be impacted. That will be the biggest news story this year, in my opinion.

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed chatting to Erasmus on the lead-up to Christmas. This was our last LinkedIn Live conversation in 2023, and we have lots planned for 2024. Stay tuned!